Despite New Cuts, Obama Will Spend More than Bush on Military

Posted on Aug 9, 2010

The most important fact in the New York Times report on Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ spending cuts comes 15 paragraphs in, when we learn that the U.S. will still spend more than ever on the military, more than all other countries combined, more than under President Bush.

This, despite the much ballyhooed closure of a major command, the savings from which would not pay for one-tenth of one of Joe Lieberman’ssubmarines.

Other cuts include a cap on generals and admirals as well as some limits on the use of contractors. —PZS

New York Times:

The budget measures go beyond what many previous defense secretaries have done to cut redundancies and inefficiencies.

But they do not represent an actual decline in year-to-year total spending.

Mr. Gates is calling for the Pentagon’s budget to keep growing in the long run at 1 percent a year after inflation, plus the costs of the war. It has averaged an inflation-adjusted growth rate of 7 percent a year over the last decade (nearly 12 percent a year without adjusting for inflation), including the costs of the wars. So far, Mr. Obama has asked Congress for an increase in total spending next year of 2.2 percent, to $708 billion — 6.1 percent higher than the peak under the Bush administration.